Your best investment is in yourself.Consider going to college or learning a trade.Use the funds to invest in something that does not require much time so you can focus on learning.If you do decide to get into real estate, you may want to consider doing a house-hack.It will give you a place to live(potentially saving you a few hundred dollars from paying rent and also giving you training wheels for being a landlord).

But, currently looking around the Saint Cloud area where I could do room rentals for college students or into the twin cities area, but the property insurance and taxes are a lot higher there. 

Everyone in your phone, linkedin, FB, IG, any other databases-school-religious-frat-clubs-sports-high school-college-old jobs-current job. 

I am an investor friendly General Contractor in the Bryan / College Station, Texas area and would love to connect with investors for their next remodel / rehab project.

Fiance (Spokane, WA) just graduated from college and is working on getting experience in real estate looking at property management.

When I graduated college I went through this exact tradeoff... was living rent-free or I could househack and own a place that builds equity, but I would need to put into it every month. 

My spouse and I bought 2 smaller apartment buildings with a total of 14 units with a partner a few years after I was out of college.

The area I was in was a heavy medical and college district. 

We play games called, "lets show the property to a perspective tenant" and "lets go to closing together" and "lets deposit money in your bank account" and "lets review your college fund investments".

In addition, Abu sent all her kids to college -- some overseas!